COMPOST GROUP

Question: How do different worm species affect biodegradable material in the decomposing stage?

Rationale: We want to know this so that composting can be as affective as possible so it can help the
environment.

What we know from our research:

Containers

We think that we should use a clear bin so that we can see how it is composing live and that the cover
should be plastic or any material that doesn’t absorb water. We should do this because we do not want to
interfere with the decomposing. We have figured out that we are going to use three containers and each
container can hold about 1155 milliliters. For each container, we are going to use 700 milliliters of
hummus dirt, and earthworms in one container, red worms in one, and in the last one, no worms. We are
going to have 6 worms in each container and see in which bin the compost decomposes the fastest. We
are going to redesign our lids, so that there will be holes for oxygen by 3D-Printers.

Worms

Red worms live on the top of the soil vs earth worms do not live on the top of the soil.
When worms die, they decompose rapidly. Worms live nutrient-rich in their tunnels, which
gives ideal who's for plants to grow. Red worms are also called
Soil

We used hummus soil because humus contains many useful nutrients and minerals
for healthy soil, with nitrogen being the most important of all. Nitrogen is
particularly important for plant growth because it is primarily responsible for
vegetative growth and a building block for protein in the compost, so the compost
stays healthy.
Sites we used to research:

https://www.glad.com/teachable-trash/how-to-make-a-compost-
bin/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxeSz_ZaR4QIVix6tBh0JDQ2NEAAYASAAEgIR-PD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/soils/biology/earthworms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida

https://www.magicproducts.com/bedding.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm

Our Hypothesis:

We think that the red worms will decompose the compost the fastest because redworms adapted from
earthworms and evolved to be better at decomposing food. Redworms also evolved to be better at
decaying and vermicomposting compost.

Materials:

1: 3 plastic specimen jars,

2: Hummus dirt,

3: Earthworms,
4: Redworms,

5: Compost

6: water

Steps of our experiment:

1: put hummus dirt up to the tape in all 3 jars.

2: 6 worms in the jars.

3: put in the compost in the 3 jars.

4: put on lids.

5: wait 3 weeks.

6: record results for every week.

Our Results:

Week 2 (April 19 2019)

No Worms:

It seems this compost is decomposing faster than the other compost.

Red Worms:

We think all the worms died.

Earthworms:

We think all the worms died.

Week 3: (April 26 2019)

No worms:

Only mold, obviously is losing.

Earthworms:

Almost done, and is in the lead.

Redworms:

About halfway done, but is still beating the no worms container.

Week 4: (May 3 2019)

No worms:

Have finally molded.

Earth worms:

Only one orange peel left!

Red worms:

Very mushy and wet.

Week 4 Day 5: (May 8 2019)

Earth Worms:

DONE!!

Red Worms:

Almost done!!

No Worms:

Same as last week.

Names of experts we contacted:

Conclusion:

Looking at our results, it is clear that our original hypothesis was wrong. One way we know it is wrong is
that the earth worms finished first, but we hypothesized that the red worms would win. We think this
happened because the earth worms were about 5x bigger than the red worms. Even though the red
worms are made to be faster at composting, because of the hugeness of the earth worms, they beat the
red worms. Another interesting that that happened was that the no worms were about 5x slower than
even the red worms. I think this was because, the earthworms only won because they were a lot bigger,
but if the red worms and earth worms were the same size, the red worms would win. The red worms are
still very fast at composting, but they are just so small. In conclusion, it turns out that earth worms are one
of, if not the best worms you should have if you have a homemade compost pile. If we were to do this
again, three things I would change would be, upload results more often, and use different worm species,
and the different worm species would be similar sizes.